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Behind every puzzle are strategies that can help improve your game.

Scrabble is all about finding the right words to maximize your score.

One champion broke a world record by scoring 230 points with a single word!

Amy Poehler says to Rashida Jones 'Gamechanger! You just busted the game wide open!'

Do you want to play Scrabble like a champion?

Play it smart! Effective word formation strategies will improve your chances of winning.

Scrabble tiles that spell the word 'Learn'

Did you know?

Scrabble was invented by architect Alfred Mosher Butts during the Great Depression in 1933 (Ladevaia, 2018). Thinking like an architect is a good strategy to follow!

Use Two-Letter And Three-Letter Words

Scrabble tiles spell the words 'Why,' 'not,' and 'try'

Memorize two-letter and three-letter words to increase your score in the game.  

When you place these words — especially on double letter, double word, triple letter, or triple word squares — you can earn double or triple-digit points.

Furthermore, words with high-value letters like Q, J, X, and Z will rake in more points.

  • Examples of two-letter words: JO, QI, UM, XI, and ZA

  • Examples of three-letter words: AAL, CWM, EAU, VAW, and YON

Did you know?

CWM is a valid English word! It means "a deep basin on a mountain" and is a loan word from Welsh (Source: scrabble-word.com).

Play With Parallels In Mind

Scrabble tiles that spell the words 'zig' and 'zag'

Earn more points through parallel play.

When your rack is full of vowels, use them to form words adjacent to another word on the board.

You can gain even more points if you form these words on bonus squares.

Hook'em

Take advantage of your opponents’ words on the board.

Add one letter tile to an existing word to create a new one. You'll get points for your new word as well as your opponent’s word.

Examples: LUSH can become FLUSH, SLUSH, or BLUSH; QUILT can become QUILTS;HAND can becomeHANDY orHANDS;and PLAN can become PLANE

Quiz

Lance wants to take advantage of his opponent's word "MAD" on the board to make a whole new word and earn some extra points. What letter should he add to the word?

Save These "Super Letters" On Your Rack

Some letter tiles that can help you come up with several combinations of words.  

The letters A, E, I, L, N, R, S, and T are the most commonly used in the English alphabet. Having a few of them on your rack will increase your chances for great wordplay. 

Memorize "Q Without U," Vowel, And Consonant Words

Get your game going by using the Q letter tile at the earliest opportunity.

Make do without a U by forming some of these approved scrabble words or their plurals: FAQIR, QI, QANAT, SHEQEL, and TRANQ.

A series of consonant and vowel Scrabble tiles

Make use of words with lots of vowels or consonants.

If your rack is full of vowels, play some of these words: AI, AA, OE and EAU.

If there's an open R letter tile on the board, you can form words with almost all vowels: AREA, EERIE, and UREA.

If you draw all consonants, you can either play "utterance" words like HMM, PSST, and BRR, or play off a vowel already on the board.

Use Blank Tiles To Get A Bingo

Work towards a "bingo".

If you grab one or both of the blank tiles in the game, save them to make a bingo, a word that uses all of the seven tiles on your rack. This will add an additional 50 points to your score on top of the points for the word itself!

Quiz

Lovina has the following letter tiles on her rack: E,N,I,T,O,R, and a blank tile. What letter could that blank tile be for her to make BINGO on the scrabble board? Hint: RO_TINE

Know Your Prefixes And Suffixes

Keep in mind common word beginnings and endings to incorporate into play.

  • Examples of prefixes: UN-, NON-, PRE-, and MIS-

  • Examples of suffixes: -ER,  -ING, -LY, and -TION

These come in handy when you're trying to make a bingo or taking advantage of an opponent’s word on the board for points.

Take Action

Did you know?

In 2018, Merriam-Webster added 300 new words to the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, increasing the word count to over 100,000. A few of those new words are: twerk, ew, bestie, and bitcoin (Kimmelman, 2018).
License:

This Byte has been authored by

SH

Stephanie Hare

UX Writer & Content Designer; Edu. Producer

M.S.Ed

English

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